1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device connectable to a memory card and a memory card initialization method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a memory card has been well known as a removable recording medium for use in a personal computer (PC) and the like. The memory card has been disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-74277. As the memory card, for example, the SD™ card has been widely used. The SD™ card has a lock/unlock function which blocks recorded confidential information from being read out by unrelated persons, for security. The SD™ card in a lock state only receives a limited part of commands so as to prohibit normal access for data read, write and erase.
To access the SD™ card, a reader/writer device for the SD™ card is needed. Conventionally, when the SD™ card is inserted into the reader/writer, the reader/writer issues an initialization command for the SD™ card. However, if the SD™ card is in lock state, sometimes the initialization command sequence is not terminated normally. Then, the reader/writer determines that that SD™ card is unavailable. As a result, there is a problem that command accesses, including an unlock command, to the SD™ card are impossible.